At least the govt is willing to lose face

As the minister noted: “A financial ceiling will be set as it is clear that farmers with small plots can only pledge small amounts, while large-scale farms clearly benefit.” 

They are to be lauded for being willing to lose face rather than do further damage to the country. As it is, the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives has had to spend Bt270 billion on buying rice at up to 40 per cent above world market prices. Plus, the US Department of Agriculture has reported that we are set to lose our status as the world’s top rice exporter this year after nearly 50 years in the top spot. Yingluck is obviously following Abraham Lincoln’s advice: “Bad promises are better broken than kept.”

The fact that this major election policy was even adopted by the Pheu Thai party speaks volumes about the quality of our policymakers’ decision-making abilities. Even a primary school student knows that farmers with small plots can only pledge small amounts, and Yingluck and Boonsong have repeatedly defended the buy-all and high-price policies as being key to their hearts, with Commerce permanent secretary Yanyong Phuangrach emphasising: “The government does not mind carrying losses.” 

The government you elected plays fast and loose with your money and mine, dear reader. 

Who is to be blamed for this fiasco? Look in the mirror, dear sir/madam, for you either did not follow the teachings of Buddha: “Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true.” Or did not do enough to dissuade others to think through the policies of whatever party they were planning to vote for. Alas, the law of dharma holds in politics, and we get the government we deserve.

What can be done now? Become politically informed and active, forcing whatever party you back to reveal and justify its long-term vision, its strategies for getting there, and force it to prove that its strategies can be feasibility implemented. When polls consistently report that corruption is rife and takes as much as 30 per cent of the value of mega-projects, force the government of the day to conduct its business transparently and accountably, hewing to best practices of public accounting and auditing.

Let us learn from this fiasco, so that our government benefits the country as a whole, not the private interests of those whom we have elected.

Burin Kantabutra

Bangkok